A comprehensive comparison of 3D data formats and their support for various 3D data types

ScanBIM Geomatik und Vermessung, Zürich included in Education List

2025-04-03 2025-04-04 About 300 words 2 minutes

Contents

3D data type	LAS/LAZ	E57	PLY	OBJ	STL	FBX	GLB/GLTF	STEP	IGES	IFC	USD	3DS	DAE (Collada)
Point cloud	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Mesh (polygonal)	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅ Limited	✅	✅	✅
TIN (triangulated surface)	⚠️	⚠️	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
NURBS / parametric surface	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅ Limited
CAD solid (B-rep)	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	⚠️	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	⚠️ Limited
Voxel grid	❌	❌	⚠️	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌
SDF / implicit surface	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	⚠️	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Skeleton / rigging	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	⚠️ Limited	✅
Animation data	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Texture / material	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	⚠️	✅	✅	✅
Photogrammetry dataset	❌	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
LiDAR scan dataset	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Displacement maps	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	✅
Scene graph hierarchy	❌	❌	❌	⚠️	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	⚠️	✅

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